Thursday, July 15, 2010

Dealing with rejection

Loyal readers of my blog know that I've been working on a business plan for a little idea of mine for quite some time. I sent my business plan off to two candle companies in late January of this year. One company I never heard from despite repeated follow ups.

The other company actually responded saying they liked my idea and were sending it off to their innovations lab for evaluation. Today, I received a rejection from them. It made me sad for about 10 minutes. Luckily, I opened it just before lunch time. I had a big bowl of my Mom's homemade chicken pot pie (can you think of a better comfort food) and began planning my next move.

Did I honestly think that my idea would be accepted on my first try? No. Will I give up and say it wasn't meant to be? No. It just means I need to tackle this from a slightly different way. Maybe, instead of licensing my idea, I do it myself. I find a manufacturing partner, get some initial designs/samples made, and go on QVC myself. Can I do this? Damn right...I can do anything I set my mind to.

I think step one will be to reach out to a former colleague of mine. He's an entrepreneur and has done very well. I think I need to buy him lunch and pick his brain!

So blog readers....what advice do you have for me? Any ideas/suggestions? Any of you entrepreneurs who started your own business? Most importantly, does anyone have any connections in the candle industry?

1 comment:

Andrea, no connections to the candle industry, sorry. Sounds like you have an idea your passionate about so keep on plugging away. I just blogged about failure on my site, quite relevant to your post here. Best of luck - you can do it!

About Me

...a wife, mother, full-time sales director, volunteer, entrepreneur, and a runner. I strive to do all these things well...but most days a ball gets dropped somewhere! Join me in this humorous adventure called Life!